animation Children's Anime Dubs: 4kids Vs Saban which is worse?

[TheMisterManGuy 344]

The now defunct 4kids Entertainment was one of the most infamous and despised companies amongst the anime community. Known for importing Anime, and needlessly and mercilessly hacking them with a Cuisinart, the firm became known for outlandish censorship, bad voice acting, and shameless pandering to young children. But a very similar company existed years before 4kids' infamy came up, another company known for importing and/or adapting foreign material for an American audience, and ironically, also ran Fox's children's programing a long time ago.

 

Saban Entertainment, formally a subsidiary/co-owner of Fox's "Fox Family Worldwide" division was founded in 1983 by Hiam Saban and Shuki Levy, and became famous for it's adaptations of Japanese tokasatsu shows, most notably, the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers. They partnered with Fox in 1996 to create Fox Kids Worldwide (later Fox Family Worldwide), with it's subsidiaries initially consisting of Saban Entertainment, and the Fox Kids Network. Saban also licensed and dubbed anime series such as Samurai Pizza Cats, and distributed an early dub of Funimation's "Dragon Ball Z" to syndication. Their most famous anime property however, was Pokemon's biggest rival, Digimon.

 

That being said, comparing the 4kids dub of Pokemon, to the Saban dub of Digimon. Which company was worse with anime dubbing in terms of localization, censorship, and faithfulness to the native version? From what I've personally seen from the dub of Digimon, Saban never really got as bad as 4kids when it came to anime dubbing. Sure, there was cheesy (Read: bad) dialogue, and a few of your usual SatAM edits, but nothing particularly infamous or noteworthy. In fact, Saban's version of Digimon Adventure 01 was actually pretty unique at the time. In the 90s when distributors of anime for kids tried to erase any and all trace of Japanese culture, Saban instead embraced it. Instead of complete name changes, most of the characters were simply given nick-names, and all Japanese locations and culture in the series remained untouched.

 

I'd still would recommend you watch the Japanese version since the dub hasn't particularly aged very well, but for a SaAM dub. Meh, I've seen worse. But one thing that 4kids always did better than Saban was memorability. Like I said, Saban's dub of Digimon isn't great, but it is watchable, but that also means it's kind of dull. The 4kids dub of Pokemon alone though, is way more notable. Becoming infamous for localizing food (Jelly-filled Donuts? WTF!?) As well as being more nostalgic for most people since Pokemon was more popular with kids than Digimon. Even outside Pokemon, 4kids' dubs are stuff of legends. Aside from the excellent Samurai Pizza Cats, most of Saban's anime licenses and dubs were... Lukewarm. 4kids however at the very least, knew how to make you laugh with their pathetic attempts at censorship, blizzare changes, as well as their almost, parody style of production. Even removing basic, often all-ready-in-english text because of the corporate belief that kids are stupid, illiterate monkeys. But that's my opinion, what's yours?

[cmarston1 5,960]

While 4Kids dubs are usually not that good, their Pokemon one, despite some confusing changes, is soo much better than the TPCI dub that we have had to deal with sense the Battle Frontier saga.

But one decent dub doesn't really change much for the company.

So I would have to go with Saban as the best one for having more than one decent/good dub.

Edited November 6, 2016 by cmarston1

[Denim&Venöm 19,754]

Just for being more respectful and embracing of the local culture and source material, I'll have to give it to Saban, since I was more of a Digimon fan over Pokemon. 

 

Never really had any issue with 4Kids until I started watching Sonic X, and noticed how off things were, how they swapped out the video game music for generic concert scores, and cut out the moments of emotional depth. Same w/ Yu-gi-oh GX. Seemed a lot more geared to kids than even the last one, with noticeable shifts in tone more to the light hearted side which killed the watchablility (that and the corny dialogue). 

 

Basically, if you make shows thinking kids are stupid, you're gonna have a bad time. 

[ggg-2 3,553]

Neither. Yes, they've both covered things up but it was for the sake of following the FCC's guidelines on censorship. Like, changing a pirate with big lips from black to white in One Piece. It wasn't racist, it was preventing another Jynx incident.

[Megas 27,920]

Saban, but not by much, they neutered a lot of good anime. As for stuff I liked, 4kids had Pokemon, and to an extent I liked the Yu Gi Oh Dub, with Saban I liked Power Rangers and Digimon so they're two for two

4kids butchered the Pokemon the 1st Movie, but Saban butchered 3 Digimon movies AND had that awful "Hey Digimon" song. Hell to give an edge to 4kids, they had the decency to attempt to release an uncut version of Yu Gi Oh with Funimation(complete with the original names, original dialogue, original music, same VA cast), even though it only lasted for about 4-5 episodes unfortunately

 

Saban did have the early script for DBZ(which I did like) but I'm in the boat that the dub didn't get good until Funimation fully took over

[TheMisterManGuy 344]

Saban, but not by much, they neutered a lot of good anime. As for stuff I liked, 4kids had Pokemon, and to an extent I liked the Yu Gi Oh Dub, with Saban I liked Power Rangers and Digimon so they're two for two

 

4kids butchered the Pokemon the 1st Movie, but Saban butchered 3 Digimon movies AND had that awful "Hey Digimon" song. Hell to give an edge to 4kids, they had the decency to attempt to release an uncut version of Yu Gi Oh with Funimation(complete with the original names, original dialogue, original music, same VA cast), even though it only lasted for about 4-5 episodes unfortunately

 

Saban did have the early script for DBZ(which I did like) but I'm in the boat that the dub didn't get good until Funimation fully took over

My problem with Saban was that most of their dubs were just... Meh. Most of their licenses came and went, and left almost no impression on the anime community. And the corny jokes that added to Digimon came off as more cringey than funny more often than not. They were a company that did their job and were serviceable in their trade. But none of their dubs were particularly good or great, or even noteworthy. Even today, recently resurfacing as Saban Brands, the anime they currently dubbed aren't particularly infamous or attention grabbing.

 

4kids on the other hand is a company I can't help but just love to hate. For all the flak they get, they were at least so incompetent that they were just so good at making you laugh at the sheer what-the-fuckery of their bizarre practices. Edits, dialogue, changes, memorability were all mind blowingly amazing, and IMO, are a lot more entertaining than anything Saban can dish out (except for Samurai Pizza Cats). 4kids, for better or worse, took more risks, Saban mostly plays it safe.

Edited November 7, 2016 by TheMisterManGuy

[Megas 27,920]

My problem with Saban was that most of their dubs were just... Meh. Most of their licenses came and went, and left almost no impression on the anime community. And the corny jokes that added to Digimon came off as more cringey than funny more often than not. They were a company that did their job and were serviceable in their trade. But none of their dubs were particularly good or great, or even noteworthy. Even today, recently resurfacing as Saban Brands, the anime they currently dubbed aren't particularly infamous or attention grabbing.

 

4kids on the other hand is a company I can't help but just love to hate. For all the flak they get, they were at least so incompetent that they were just so good at making you laugh at the sheer what-the-fuckery of their blizzare practices. Edits, dialogue, changes, memorability were all mind blowingly amazing, and IMO, are a lot more entertaining than anything Saban can dish out (except for Samurai Pizza Cats). 4kids, for better or worse, took more risks, Saban mostly plays it safe.

lol too true, some of 4kids stuff you couldn't help but laugh at how dumb they got

 

 

Not to mention, a lot of their edits reeked of Xenophobia, at least Saban kept the Digimon kids in Japan

[Ganondorf8 11,432]

Despite what 4Kids did when it came to dubbing anime, they had to conform to American broadcasting standards, and that meant having to change some things even when it wasn't really necessary. Most of their dubbed anime was dreadful and you only laughed because of how bad it was, yet their dubbing of Pokémon was actually pretty faithful to the original. I know they Americanized the food, changed the names, and removed Japanese text, but their dub was almost identical aside from some slight cuts that were mainly paned shots during battles.

 

Saban Entertainment, on the other hand, were actually pretty decent although they had their problems too. Season One of Digimon was fantastic although I'm biased towards that for personal reasons, yet Season Two was horrible throughout the first half of it. The reusing of the same songs over and over, cringe-worthy jokes, pointless dialogue, and just general bad pacing made it unbearable. It only got good when Black WarGreymon first appeared and retained that consistency--there were some bad moments such as the Digimon World Tour three part saga--until the end. I personally liked Digimon Tamers' dubbed version as I found it faithful to the original, and Leomon's death scene was kept intact.

[TheMisterManGuy 344]

Not to mention, a lot of their edits reeked of Xenophobia, at least Saban kept the Digimon kids in Japan

That's another problem. Saban, unlike 4kids is pretty inconsistent with their practices. One minnute, you get Digimon, which keeps the Japanese setting and culture, as well as the Japanese names, anyone with a hard to pronounce name is simply given a nickname. I commend them for this... But then you get Glitter Force (AKA Smile PrettyCure) which gives all the characters English first names, but for some reason, they don't bother to localize their last names. Never mind the fact that they're doing this in 2016, the fact that they lack consistent practices for adapting anime is a big reason why their dubs lack memorability. With 4kids, you can at least know what you're getting into, as they are usually consistent with their changes, but with Saban, not only were their dubs mediocre, but they also don't have consistent enough localization practices to keep you interested.

Edited November 6, 2016 by TheMisterManGuy

[OmegaBeamOfficial 622]

I'm not a big fan of either of those companies, especially 4Kids for their stupid censorship practices, often terrible dubbing and overall diminishing the quality of the show, and it seems most anime they dub don't even really fit their dubbing style, the only one I can think of that does is Ultimate Muscle. Acting like relationships don't exist, nor tradition and violence is stupid, these dubs are raising children to think that things like that don't exist, and then when they're hit with the harsh reality of the real world they're gonna struggle. It's sad 4Kids are the only reason I was ever able to watch Pokemon as a kid, but at least they're defunct now, giving a bittersweet end to their terrible reign on the English anime dub... And then Nintendo replaced them with people even worse for Pokemon, but still that's not the point, the point is 4Kids are terrible people and I'm glad they aren't around anymore.

 

Oh, and one thing I will NEVER forgive is what they did to the Cosmo death scene in Sonic X, that was a fucking disgrace to anime dubs on television, and in general a scummy thing for 4Kids to do. Sorry, I got a little angry there, I've had a grudge with them over that for quite some time...

Edited November 6, 2016 by OmegaBeamOfficial

[Meire 100]

Name change isnt that uncommon actually. It can happen in stuff like Disney characters like Donald Duck in certain countries. But aslong as the show itself is fun then i dont mind.